Fernando the Christmas Elf Leaves Great Surprises

Fernando has not disappointed in his nightly visits..The first night he left a slinky for each child along with some candy. The next night he left tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet...(Photo of Charlie dressed in his Christmas Sweater to go the Nutcracker). Last night he left coloring books and bags of coal. (The coal was bubble gum so not bad, huh...)

Meet Fernando, The Cook Christmas Elf

This is Fernando. Tonight, being December 1st, the kids all put a little fairy dust/elf dust/glitter on their hands and on the count of 3 blew it into Fernando's face. Through the magic of Christmas the glitter will allow Fernando to awaken every night from now until Christmas to do something either naughty or nice in our home. He won't wake up until we are all fast asleep and if it gets too late he gets tired of waiting and the likelihood of "something naughty" increases.
Some nights he will leave wonderful little treats or rewards for our family to wake up to. Other nights we may wake up to something not so nice.
Fernando also has relatives that work with Santa in the North Pole and he keeps in close contact about the Christmas spirit in our home and whether or not we deserve a visit on Christmas Eve. We look forward to waking up tomorrow morning to see what Fernando has done with his first night of freedom...We'll keep you posted.

H1N1 Vaccinations for the 3 Youngest

Stanford 45 - Notre Dame 38

It's always been a treat to return to Stanford and walk the beautiful campus. Brad enjoys recalling experiences that took place in his life there. He has great memories of his time playing football for Stanford in 1986-87. The campus is amazing and has a sense of tradition and history. The beautiful sandstone arches and Hoover Tower are so impressive.
This year Michael and Debi Benson invited us to go see the final season game, Stanford vs. Notre Dame. We jumped at the chance and loved every minute of the two night get-a-way.
Stanford has a new stadium, built the first year we were in Abu Dhabi so we loved seeing the incredible structure. It seats half the number of people as the previous stadium and gives all in attendance a much better view of the game.
Our seats were great. We sat on the 20 yard line behind the Notre Dame team only 4 rows up!
We could hear the clash of the helmets and the calls of the quarterback. It was awesome.
The game didn't disappoint. Notre Dame made a great showing. Giving Stanford a run for their money until the second half when the Cardinal came alive and thanks to amazing play by Gerhart, Stanford made and exciting come-back to win, 45-38.
(By the way..How is it fare that Dr. Hotpants looks better NOW than he did when he played there over 20 years ago??)

The 4 of us with Hoover Tower (faintly) in the background.



After the game everyone rushed onto the field to celebrate and congratulate Gerhart for breaking all kinds of records.

Timing worked out that we were able to see Sargon, Habib, Tammy, and Sargon's Father, Ron. What a treat. With Sargon and Habib in Afghanistan we have spent Thanksgiving/Christmas with them in Abu Dhabi. We never dreamed we might get to see them here in the US on the same weekend this year. The weekend before Thanksgiving Habib was honored by CENTCOM for his contributions to the US military in Afghanistan. After receiving this prestigious award in D.C. Habib got to see a lot of the US on his first visit to this country. He saw Florida, Las Vegas and the Bay area.

Veteran's Day Presentation 2009

Jack and Charlie were so cute when they presented Grandpa John's framed medals and awards from his military service. The class had a lot of questions and the boys had a lot of interesting and REALLY imaginative explanations for how he got each award. Only a few of which were true or even possible. Luckily I was there to correct the answers such as: "He got this award for running a man through with a sword..." "He got this medal for shooting a man from a helicopter."...

We Give Thanks for Each Other!

Our blessings are too numerous to count. It's easy to be grateful for each other and our happy, healthy family. We also give thanks for the experiences we have enjoyed together through our lives. Abu Dhabi is close to our hearts and we give thanks for the opportunity we had to share that unique experience. Now we find ourselves in another beautiful part of the world.
We hiked through Zions National Park on Sunday and took a few pictures.
I am so thankful for this cute family I am blessed with. So thankful for a loving, understanding, patient husband who is an incredible partner and an amazing father. Our children are a constant joy and source of entertainment. They are growing so fast and I am beginning to realize we won't have them in our home forever. Hopefully they will always want to spend time with us and together. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our loved ones all over the world.

Sam's First Shiner

Sam was hit in the eye with a football. He officially has his first black eye! I'm so proud...so is he!

Halloween Memories

Happy Halloween

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SNOW HAPPY!

When they arrived home from school the kids were so excited to have seen snow. They didn't mind there wasn't much left on the ground, they went right out and started making little snowballs to throw at each other. Sam has been sick for over 2 weeks now. (No, not the Swine Flu) Some unknown virus has taken it's toll on him so he didn't join in the reverie. The other 3 had a great time though.

At the time the sun was out and it appeared the storm had passed. Now, though, it is blustery and stormy again so there is bound to be more fun later. Off to make hot cocoa and toast..

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

First Snow

Today we experienced the first snow of 2009. Granted we have seen snow at Ski Dubai but this was actual precipitation falling from the sky..or rather flying sideways. I had mixed emotions. It was nice to be home, cleaning the house and having a fire in the fireplace but to go out for errands was brutal. By 3pm the sun was out and was melting any accumulation. Just a warning of things to come I suppose.

Southern Utah University (who we now cheer for) played Utah State University (who I cheered for as a student there and through my childhood) in Logan. We took the family and spent a night with cousins in Riverton then on to Logan to see Bobbi, Grandpa John, Sarah, Bergen, JD and the FOOTBALL GAME.

The weather was perfect for an evening of football. The game was exciting with great back and forth offensive plays with SUU doing a good job of keeping up with the Aggies. Toward the end the Ag's ran away with it but we all had a fabulous time and enjoyed the atmosphere with popcorn, snowcones and soda.

Half-time was a great opportunity for the kids and Brad to play hot potato with the football the boys take with them EVERYWHERE.

Cairo looked so cute on Friday as she left for school. I just had to catch a quick photo of her in this great little outfit we got for a school year that will include colder weather.

Eastern Sunset...

The sunsets here are spectacular. However, as I looked off our east deck the other night I noticed the sunset was creating a beautiful view of the eastern mountains as well. Amazing.

Sam's Tackle on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1BZjYb2TLk

Sam Makes a Tackle

Sam actually got to play in a game on Saturday morning. Sam, Jack, Charlie and I took off headed straight west into Nevada to a small town called Panaca. It took about an hour and a half to get there but it was a beautiful fall day and I had my 3 boys who are

football crazy

in the car.

There was nowhere else I'd rather be.

(Brad stayed home with Cairo because she had her first tennis lesson that same morning.)

Sam was put in the game playing several different positions, just trying to get a feel for the plays and field positions.

In this video you will see him make the first tackle of his career.

He is easy to spot because he is the only guy on the team with a gold helmet.

Sam is so happy to be playing football. He looks so grown up in that uniform. I cannot believe he goes out there and crashes into other bigger boys and comes off the field smiling.

Wednesday Night Lights

The boys have officially started their football season. Brad coaches Jack and Charlie and their 1st and 2nd grade flag-football team.

Jack scored his first touchdown last night in the game. The play went off just as the coach had designed it. I was so proud and shocked to see scrappy Jack with the ball tucked under his arm running like crazy, the right direction and crossing the goal line. What a night. Charlie is a great defensive player and is great at returning kicks. He got a few punt returns that wound up gaining yards for the team.

Brad and Charlie helped out with the chains at Sam's game after the flag-football game. There was so much support for this 5th-6th grade football game. The parents all pitch in to make it happen.

The boys getting ready for their big night. Putting on their shoes. NO cleats in the house..

Charlie loves to wear Sam's helmet.